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Amy Culbertson: Spoonbread stirs memories of mom

When I think back on my mom's cooking, cornmeal comes to mind.

Deacra Eula Shaw Culbertson, who died last year at age 91, was a gifted Southern cook, and that quintessential Southern ingredient was one of the most important items in her pantry.

Her crusty, crunchy cornbread was legendary in our family. Her thinly sliced, super-crisp fried okra was cloaked in a thin filigree of cornmeal, nothing more, as was her fried catfish.

When I think about what I might cook if I had my mom here to make breakfast for on Mother's Day, I can't conjure anything more fitting than something made with cornmeal. Since my love of anything cornmeal-based has only grown since my childhood, I can imagine a lot of possibilities, starting with a simple sunny-side up, soft-boiled or poached egg, with cornsticks substituting for toast "soldiers."

My idea of breakfast or brunch heaven, though, would be a soft, light cloud of spoonbread just out of the oven, generously anointed with melting butter. All you'd need with that would be a light fruit salad on the side.

My current favorite comfort breakfast is a bowl of cheese grits topped with a poached egg, with salsa verde on the side; and my favorite thing to do with my mom's leftover cornbread has long been to split it in half, butter the halves and toast them under a broiler for breakfast. So it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to come up with a Southwestern version of eggs Benedict, with toasted cornbread rounds as the base and a vibrant salsa verde to replace the hollandaise.

The salsa verde will be a lot less stressful to make than hollandaise sauce, since you start with a bottled salsa and simply tweak it up with fresh stuff. You could cheat with purchased cornbread, or you could make the cornbread from scratch the night before, cut out and reserve as many cornbread rounds as you need (use a large biscuit or cookie cutter if you have one, or cut the rounds with an opened, emptied and washed soup or vegetable can, as my mother probably would have). Eat the rest of the cornbread for supper.

Split each cornbread round in half and butter and toast them in a toaster oven or under your oven's broiler. Top each hot cornbread round with a poached egg and drizzle the egg with warmed salsa verde.

Almost any cornbread recipe will do -- as long as it's not one of those Yankee cake-masquerading-as-cornbread versions -- but I'm including the recipe for my mom's signature cornbread, whose secret ingredient is oatmeal. I first shared the recipe for Deacra's cornbread several years ago in a Mother's Day column.

When I think of her cornbread, I always think of a family story that my Aunt Lura -- who loved a joke, especially if it was on her -- enjoyed telling. Aunt Lura had made a snack of cornbread and milk for one of her young nephews, and after he finished it he complimented her enthusiastically on her cornbread. It was, the youngster declared, "almost as good as Deacra's."

I always hope mine will be, too.

Cheddar cheese spoonbread

My favorite spoonbread recipe is based on one from Dallas Southwestern-food guru Anne Lindsay Greer. I have been making it for years and tweak it a little every time I try it. It makes a dramatic presentation if baked in a souffle-type dish. The puffy top will sink in as it cools, but the spoonbread is still good when reheated in the microwave.

Serves 12

4 large or 6 small garlic cloves, split or smashed

2 cups milk

4 eggs, separated

1 cup cornmeal

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees if using an 8-by-11 dish, or 325 if using a souffle-type round dish. Position oven rack in lower third of oven.

2. Add garlic to milk in a saucepan and heat milk to a boil (you can also do this in a microwave-safe container in the microwave); remove from heat. Remove and discard garlic cloves.

3. While milk is heating, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; set aside.

4. Place cornmeal in a large mixing bowl and add hot milk, stirring or whisking to dissolve lumps. Cut 4 tablespoons of the butter into small pieces and stir into mixture until melted. Add buttermilk, then egg yolks, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and cayenne. Stir or whisk vigorously to dissolve any lumps.

5. Fold beaten egg whites into batter along with 3/4 of the cheese.

6. Butter an 8-by-11-inch casserole dish or a 7 1/2-inch-diameter, 3-inch-tall round baking dish with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Turning dish to coat; tap out the cheese that doesn't adhere to the dish and reserve it to top the spoonbread. Pour in batter and sprinkle reserved cheese on top. Place dish on a foil-lined baking sheet and transfer to oven.

7. For the 8-by-11-inch dish, bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until set; for the souffle-type dish, bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours, or until set. Top will be very brown and puffy. The timing of this spoonbread can be tricky, depending on the temperature of your oven. Use a tester; the interior should be very moist but not liquid. You may need to lower the heat if the top begins to brown too much before the interior is set.

8. Serve hot with butter.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 456 calories, 30 grams fat, 28 grams carbohydrates, 20 grams protein, 220 milligrams cholesterol, 1,086 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber, 59 percent of calories from fat.

-- adapted from "Foods of the Sun" by Anne Lindsay Greer

(Harper & Row, 1988)

Deacra's cornbread

Serves 8

1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup oatmeal (not instant)

2 rounded teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted bacon grease or margarine, plus extra for the pan

1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Mix together cornmeal, oatmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in eggs, then add bacon grease (or margarine) and milk.

3. Add enough bacon grease to your baking pan to cover the bottom of the pan and place it in the oven. When the grease is very hot, remove pan from the oven and pour in the cornbread batter. Return to oven and bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, until brown. If you use a glass pan, bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 345 calories, 17 grams fat, 39 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams protein, 109 milligrams cholesterol, 893 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber, 45 percent of calories from fat

-- Deacra Eula Shaw Culbertson

Cheater salsa verde

Yields about 3 cups

24-ounce jar purchased salsa verde (mild is fine; choose a hotter version if you like)

Juice of 2 small limes or 1 extra-large lime

3 medium cloves garlic, or to taste, roughly chopped

Leaves and tender stems from 2/3 bunch cilantro

Combine all ingredients in a blender and pulse into a rough puree.

Nutritional analysis per 1-tablespoon serving: 5 calories, trace fat, 1 gram carbohydrates, trace protein, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 62 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber, 6 percent of calories from fat.

-- Amy Culbertson

Amy Culbertson is the Star-Telegram food editor, 817-390-7421

 

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